CLASSIC ALBUM: Marianne Faithfull – Broken English
Released in 1979, Marianne Faithfull’s masterpiece Broken English marked a major stylistic reinvention for Faithfull, with the album taking significant influence from the emerging post-punk and new wave scenes in both the UK and US. What remains constant is Faithfull’s ability to subvert and take the prevalent pop music of the time into much darker territory.
The first example of this is the title track which presents a largely synthesized backing upon which Faithfull assesses and attempts to understand the terrorist actions of the German left-wing militants The Baader-Meinhof Group. First thing anyone previously familiar with Faithfull’s work will notice is the major difference to her vocal delivery. Gone is the sweet, folky tone of As Tears Go By, replaced by a voice ravaged by severe laryngitis, imbuing her vocals with an extreme sense of character and punkish volatility. Throughout Broken English these elements are accompanied by a new emotional depth to Faithfull’s vocal, no surprise given Faithfull had gone through a decade marked by heroin addiction, homelessness and anorexia.
Alongside the opening title track, particular standouts include an incredible reinterpretation of The Ballad of Lucy Jordan and the new wave dance groove of Brain Drain. Faithfull’s recording of Guilt, as song written by songwriter and friend Barry Reynolds, chronicles childhood indoctrination into Catholicism upon a shimmying rhythm augmented by jazz inflected guitar and saxophone. Closing track Why D’ya Do It? is a thrilling, venomous tirade, a lyric replete with four-letter words (that for a pop star at the time would have been pretty shocking, the majority of high profile punks didn’t go this far) is delivered with a gleeful sense of danger.
A constant throughout Broken English is Faithfull’s adjustment of the nature of the era, where many 60s stars were deemed dinosaurs by the punk enfant terribles, Faithfull instead looks to the future and embraces the new, seemingly boundless musical freedoms to create an album of outstanding quality.
